Five things to watch: Leafs goalies, Magnificent Malkin and more

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Five things to watch: Leafs goalies, Magnificent Malkin and more

Each day, THN gives you five things to watch out for in the games ahead. There are nine games on tap tonight.

By Garrett Perry, Nicholas Carafa and Curtis Ng

Each day, THN gives you five things to watch out for in the games ahead. There are nine games on tap tonight.

The Reimer and Bernier Show

No one could have guessed the Leafs’ goaltending situation to play out as well as it has so far this season, but that’s what you get when you have strong competition in the crease. Despite ranking 29th in the league in shots allowed per game at 36.2, Toronto’s goaltending tandem of James Reimer and Jonathan Bernier have anchored their team to third place in the Eastern Conference standings. On Saturday it was Reimer that backstopped the Leafs to victory. Facing a potent Washington Capitals offense, Reimer turned aside 49 shots, before denying three of four attempts in the shootout to earn the victory. The Manitoba native owns a 10-6-2 record, a league-best .947 save percentage and a 2.10 goals-against average. Equally impressive is Bernier, who owns an 8-6-1 record while sporting a .934 save percentage and 2.19 GAA that places him among the league’s best as well. Coming off one of the best starts in his career, expect Reimer to get the start tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but regardless of who’s in net for the Leafs, they will give them a chance to win.

Magnificent Malkin

Evgeni Malkin has only scored one goal in his last 11 games, but get ready to have your mind blown. Other than that one goal, he’s managed 15 assists – I think it’s safe to say this guy’s on fire. Teams have only managed to keep him off the scoresheet in six of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ first 24 games. Not bad for a guy whose torrid pace has him sitting fourth in league scoring (26) and first in assists (22). Malkin and the boys head into Boston tonight for the first time since they were swept in the Eastern Conference final last year and the Bruins were able to keep him and Crosby off the box score. Now if the Pens want to leave TD Garden with two points, they’re going to need Malkin and Sidney Crosby to figure out way to beat Tuukka Rask.

Devilishly good

The New Jersey Devils were burned by Ilya Kovalchuk’s “retirement” in the offseason, but they’ve managed to stay in the thick of the Metropolitan Division with a couple of ageless wonders. At 41 years old, Martin Brodeur could be playing for another five years, at least with the way he’s managed to keep the Devils in games, while 41-year-old Jaromir Jagr is leading the team with 18 points. When the Winnipeg Jets come to town tonight they’ll have to deal with a Devils team that has gone 6-3-1 in the past ten games and as of right now, the Devils are just outside a wild-card spot by three points.

Hot in November

Something’s gotta give as the NHL’s two hottest teams in November faceoff. The Blues are dominant at Scottrade Center, with a 10-1-2 record. Minnesota owns an identical home record, but unfortunately, that won’t matter tonight. Their road record is a mediocre 5-4-2. In terms of offense, the Blues have the slight edge in November with a 41-34 advantage. They’ve let in almost an identical number of goals this month: the Wild have allowed 24 to the Blues’ 25. And goaltending? Josh Harding has an excellent .939 save percentage and a miniscule 1.48 goals-against average. The problem is that he was injured during warmup on Saturday, so he’s questionable for tonight. Niklas Backstrom earned the win in his first game back after missing a couple weeks with a concussion. Jaroslav Halak’s .906 save percentage is nothing to write home about, but his 2.34 goals-against average is pretty good. It’s almost a goal more per game than Harding, but what goalie doesn’t have bloated stats compared to him?

No fuel in tank for Jets

After winning four straight games in mid-November, the Jets have now lost four in a row. They’re in New Jersey tonight to face the Devils and kickoff a six-game road trip. The Devils are back home after taking two of three in California. Winnipeg is 5-4-2 this month, but a big storyline around this team is the droughts that many of its top players are going through. Evander Kane hasn’t scored a goal in 11 games – his last goal was almost a calendar month ago, when he scored against the Dallas Stars on October 26. Kane is tied for fifth in team scoring, but more is expected from him. Blake Wheeler also hasn’t scored in 11 games dating back to October 29 in St. Louis. Devin Setoguchi hasn’t scored in seven games, but his streak is nothing compared to Mark Scheifele’s. The 20-year-old rookie scored in the Jets’ season opener against Edmonton, but has gone 24 straight games without a goal. Before notching an assist in Saturday’s overtime loss against Minnesota, he had previously gone eight games without a point. Luckily for Winnipeg, the Devils aren’t exactly lighting it up either. Aside from Jaromir Jagr and his nine goals, nobody else on the team has more than five.

John Tavares scores with a move no one had ever done before

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John Tavares scores with a move no one had ever done before

The New York Islanders captain undressed Jay Bouwmeester in the most unusual of ways, but the important thing is he kept the puck. Then he buried it

John Tavares: good at hockey.

The New York Islanders captain pulled off an absolutely stunning series of moves last night, culminating in a laser-shot goal against St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen. But let's get back to his humbling of Olympic gold medallist Jay Bouwmeester, because that's where the real magic happened.

Witness, as Tavares puts his stick behind his back and grabs it with his other hand while still skating and fending off Bouwmeester. Then, since he is a patient boy, Tavares waits and waits and waits before firing one top corner on Allen:

As the soccer folks would say, lovely. New York would go on to beat the Blues 3-2, with Anders Lee scoring the other two goals for the Isles. After struggling to begin the season, New York is now 6-2-2 in its past 10 games. Tavares leads the squad with 21 points through 26 contests.

Canadiens’ Pacioretty spent all of November playing on a broken foot

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Canadiens’ Pacioretty spent all of November playing on a broken foot

Max Pacioretty has a good reason for his slump throughout November: he was playing with a broken foot. Pacioretty found his groove to start December, though, with three goals and four points in four games.

The Canadiens’ major off-season move saw P.K. Subban shipped out to Nashville in exchange for Predators captain Shea Weber, and there have been rumblings that Montreal could be heading towards another major move at some point this season, this including captain Max Pacioretty.

While the rumor may sound far-fetched or bizarre, it wasn’t without reason. You see, Pacioretty, 28, was off to one of the slowest starts of his career and through the early part of the season he looked as though he was a shell of his former goal-scoring self. By the end of October, Pacioretty had just two goals. Come the end of November, he had increased that to just five. All the while, Pacioretty was watching his ice time fluctuate.

It’s near impossible to know exactly when the injury came, especially without Pacioretty outright saying when it occurred, but it’s not hard to believe that the veteran winger was fighting through injury over the course of the past month. Pacioretty has been one of the league’s most consistent goal scorers in the past four seasons.

From the start of the 2012-13 lockout shortened campaign until the culmination of the 2015-16 season, Pacioretty scored 121 goals, good for the ninth most in the league. His .43 goals per game rate over that span is the same as that of Jamie Benn’s and ranked ahead of Sidney Crosby, Rick Nash, James Neal, Vladimir Tarasenko, Evgeni Malkin and you get the point. This season, though, Pacioretty’s five goals through 23 games had his goals rate at roughly half of his rate of the past few seasons.

That has changed in early December, though. Since the calendar turned over, Pacioretty has been one of the hottest scorers in the Montreal lineup and a terror on the ice. In four games, he has a team-leading three goals and four points, no one has put more rubber on net than Pacioretty’s 15 shots and there isn’t a single forward in the lineup seeing more ice time or shifts. He broke out of his November-long slump in a big way, too, with a two-goal, three-point performance against the usually smothering Los Angeles Kings.

If Pacioretty is fully healed, and his recent performance seems to indicate as such, don’t expect those trade rumors to keep gathering much, or any, steam. Finding his form from past seasons makes him one of the best weapons in the Canadiens’ lineup and a potential game breaker as the season wears on.

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Connor McDavid didn’t mince his words when asked post-game about Brandon Manning. He called the Flyers defenseman “classless” and said Manning admitted to injuring him on purpose.

Connor McDavid has had no shortage of head-to-head battles with young stars in the game. There has been outings against Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews and more than handful per year against the Flames duo of Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan.

But of all the players Connor McDavid could have had an on-ice feud with, it seems Brandon Manning is the first real rival for the Oilers phenom.

One might recall that it was during the early part of the 2015-16 campaign that Manning, a Philadelphia Flyers blueliner, got tangled up with McDavid as he looked to break in on goal, resulting in McDavid making hard contact with the boards behind the net. The impact with the boards saw McDavid break his collarbone and led to a 37-game absence for the then-rookie.

It was believed to be an unintentional act, something that simply happened as part of the game, and McDavid had even absolved Manning of any blame. That was until last night, more than 13 months after the Nov. 3, 2015 injury to McDavid..

During the Oilers’ hard-fought 6-5 defeat at the hands of the Flyers, McDavid was seen verbally jousting with Manning on a couple of occasions. The most obvious case came after a power play goal by McDavid, where he was seen skating towards Manning and shouting something in his direction.

It didn’t end there, though. Post-game, the Oilers captain went in on Manning, calling the hit that led to the broken collarbone an intentional act.

"I did all I could defending him last year in the media," McDavid said. "Everyone wanted to make a big deal saying he did it on purpose, and he wanted to say some comments today about what went on last year. I thought it was one of the [most] classless things I've ever seen on the ice. He said some things and our guys responded accordingly. I guess we can put the whole 'if he did it on purpose' thing to rest because what he said out there kind of confirmed that. Shows what kind of guy he is when he doesn’t step up and fight some of our guys.”

Shortly after McDavid commented on the incident, Manning fired back saying that he would “never intentionally hurt someone,” and added that’s not the way he plays.

"Anybody who knows me, I play a hard game,” Manning said, according to NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman. “That's the reason I'm here, that's the way I'm in the NHL. I'm not here to score goals like some of those guys. I think I play an honest game, and anyone who knows me knows I play hard and stuff happens out there."

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The Golden Knights have hit another hurdle with their name, this time with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A trademark request has been rejected, but it doesn’t sound like the team expects a name change.

The Vegas Golden Knights are really having a tough time catching a break in the naming department.

On Wednesday, a trademark request by the Golden Knights was rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in large part because the name and logo were deemed too similar to that of the NCAA’s College of St. Rose Golden Knights.

Yes, that’s right, yet another roadblock between the NHL’s newest franchise and the name Golden Knights.

The first hurdle for the team, and the first real hubbub about the name, came shortly after the naming ceremony in late November. The team had only had the Golden Knights moniker in place for a week when it was reported by The Fayetteville Observer’s Steve DeVane that the U.S. Army was set to review Vegas’ use of the name because it is shared by the Army’s highly decorated parachute team.

And all that came after Vegas owner Bill Foley purposely strayed from his first choice for the team name, Black Knights, in order to avoid any conflict with the U.S. Army’s NCAA athletics programs and after the singular name, Knights, was reportedly avoided in order to forego any conflict with the OHL’s London Knights.

Suffice to say, the naming process has been a headache thus far. However, before those who despise the name and/or logo go celebrating in the streets, it should be noted that the latest naming hurdle likely means nothing in the long run.

“Office actions like this are not at all unusual, and we will proceed with the help of outside counsel in preparing a response to this one,” the statement reads.

In their statement, Vegas also pointed to the shared names of UCLA and Boston, both named the Bruins, Miami and Carolina, both named the Hurricanes, and even pointed out that Vegas and Clarkson share the Golden Knights name. None of this is to mention the MLB’s Texas Rangers and the NHL’s New York Rangers share a name.

“We believe, at the end of the day, all parties will embrace the fact that we are the Vegas Golden Knights and this absolutely will work out,” Craven told Gotz. “I hope people don’t overreact to this at all. We believe everyone will be satisfied. We are only going to enhance the name Golden Knights for everyone. That’s our goal.”

UPDATE: NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly has released the following statement:

“We are currently reviewing the Trademark Office's letter and will prepare a detailed response demonstrating why we continue strongly to believe the Vegas Golden Knights mark should be registered in co-existence with the college registration, just as a number of other nicknames currently co-exist in professional and college sports (particularly where there is no overlap as to the sport for which the nickname is being used). That response is not due until June 7, 2017.

“We consider this a routine matter and it is not our intention to reconsider the name or logo of this franchise. We fully intend to proceed as originally planned, relying on our common law trademark rights as well as our state trademark registrations while we work through the process of addressing the question raised in the federal applications.”